With no rule book for new parents, taking care of a newborn becomes a daunting task, especially for mothers who have to learn how to breastfeed their child overnight.
Breastfeeding does not come naturally to a mother who might sometimes feel inadequate or exhausted after failed attempts. However, help is at hand at Mater Dei Hospital’s walk-in breastfeeding clinic where infant feeding specialist midwives, such as Helen Borg, are there to give advice and reassure mothers they are no failure.
“New mothers have to learn their baby’s cues in the early weeks and often lack confidence. They feel the need for support and encouragement and society doesn’t always help,” she said.
Many mothers were bombarded with sometimes conflicting advice from relatives, friends and even health professionals, which could affect their confidence, leaving them confused.
Mothers seem to find the clinic a support mechanism where they have the opportunity to simply walk-in and seek advice from the midwives and other mothers there.
“When you have a mother with a five-day old baby arrive in tears because breastfeeding is painful and she has had no sleep, the mother next to her with a two-month old baby will encourage her,” Mrs Borg explained.
The number of walk-ins is quite indicative with more than 6,500 registered in 2011. Attendance figures shot up from 1,145 in 2007, when it was set up at St Luke’s Hospital, to 5,447 in 2010.
Mothers are able to weigh their baby at the clinic and this helps them “visualise” their growth. This, in turn, “helps them to accept that breastfeeding is working.”
“Breastfeeding is not particularly easy in the first weeks and, more often than not, feels like an uphill battle. When you are exhausted, in pain and frustrated it’s easy to concede defeat,” Mrs Borg said.
True to its name, the clinic does not require an appointment and mothers can go there as often as they need and when they need because “you can’t plan a breastfeeding problem”.
Mrs Borg admitted that there were days when the “queue never seems to end” but said there were four midwives working flat-out to cope with the demand.
The clinic also offers help with any form of infant feeding, even with formula milk and solid foods.
“The introduction of solid foods is a milestone in a baby’s life and many women visit when their child is around six months old, seeking guidance on how to get started,” she said.
Mothers were also helped to use a breast pump to express milk, which gave them the element of freedom while still providing their own milk for their baby, Mrs Borg said.
Breast milk is full of anti-infective properties that protect newborns from bacteria and viruses and is easy to digest. “It’s true this may mean the baby wakes sooner but they don’t suffer from digestion problems such as colic and constipation,” she explained.
Breastfeeding creates a special relationship between the mother and the baby and many mothers feel a sense of loss even if they made an active decision to stop, according to Mrs Borg.
Obesity is becoming a huge factor in breastfeeding promotion with studies making a link between overfeeding in the early weeks of life with childhood obesity.
“Many mothers will expect the baby to finish the full bottle of milk and will give extra bottles when the baby is unsettled, which makes him very full and has a knock-on effect. When this happens frequently, it will cause a rapid weight gain,” she said.
The clinic opens on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3.30 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.